Superficiality
by Chicken Yuki
Summary: With Mary's negative view of her self image kicking in, it's up to Farmer Mitchel to change her perception of beauty and cheer her up! However, his lecture takes a turn for the unusual, throwing the concept of inner beauty straight out the window...


_Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Harvest. Moon. It belongs to Natsume, fool._

* * *

**Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town**

**Superficiality**

It was a calm, quiet afternoon in Mineral Town's library. Its librarian, the black-haired Mary, sat about reading to herself while she waited for one of her regular patrons to arrive, or until it was closing time; whichever came first.

The humble librarian's heart soared just when her epic tale reached a gut-wrenching moment. Her frame-covered eyes scanned the text with eager anticipation, hoping to reach the Chapter's resolution until she heard the entry door creak open.

"Yo, Mary!" an excitable voice cried out.

The spectacled maiden lowered her book ever so slightly to get a good look at her recently-arrived patron.

The young man standing before her had short, thick, raven-black hair and big bright blue eyes with a wide, goofy grin. He wore a casual light blue jean jacket along with a clear white t-shirt, a flame-patterned bandana, light blue jeans and a pair of white and red sneakers. He was Mitchel Blaze, the relative newcomer who had taken over the farm a few seasons ago.

"M-Mitchel… hi." Mary uttered back in a startled voice.

The curious farmer's eyes shifted towards the book in her hand.

"Oh. Did I interrupt another one of your reading sessions? Eh, sorry about that…" Mitchel said with a nervous chuckle.

"No, no! There's no need to apologize, Mitchel. It's just my way of preoccupying myself until a patron is in need of my assistance, after all." Mary explained.

"Well, you certainly got the "preoccupying" part down." Mitchel replied, "Tell you what. I still feel guilty for cutting you off at crucial parts of your novels. How about the next I'll just simply sneak in here like a thief and then leave you to your business undisturbed until I need your help? Of course, I'm not going to try and steal anything while you're distracted like that, especially when I can do it the legal way and borrow these books for free."

"Actually, you can go ahead and give me your usual greeting. I really appreciate knowing when my patrons arrive." Mary grinned.

"Alright…" Mitchel agreed reluctantly, "I just hope your mind doesn't register my greeting during an awkward part of your reading."

After the young farmer proceeded to search the shelves, Mary set her sights right on her book once more. After going through more lines of text, the modest maiden sighed deeply.

"Another lady of brilliant beauty enjoying her taste of love…" she thought to herself.

For awhile, her mind raced through the various shining heroines with fine, flowing hair; luscious lips; eyes like sparkling gemstones; and nice, healthy figures.

Again, she sighed with deep envy, and her eyes once more rested upon the sole patron with intense curiosity and desperation.

"Mitchel…" Mary cried out.

The farmer quickly turned his head just as he pulled out a book on jewel appraisal.

"Yes?" he replied nonchalantly.

" Um…. This might be a strange question for me to ask, but… uh… do you… think I'm pretty?" she asked.

Upon reaching his ears, Mitchel's expression all but soured.

Mary gulped. The raven-haired farmer slowly approached her with reprimanding eyes. If she had not known the young man as well as she did, she would've sworn he was plotting to kill her then and there. Soon enough, Mary was forced to see that intimidating face right behind the desk.

"What?" Mitchel uttered in jaded disbelief.

Mary squirmed as Mitchel's eyes observed the entirety of Mary's desk, catching a stack of conspicuous novels on the side, then re-examining the very book in her hands.

"I see… are those romance novels giving you crazy ideas again?" he asked coolly.

"Wh-what? N-n-n-no… this isn't a romance novel this time. It's… it's a very well known fantasy about a group of Dragon Knights fighting to gain freedom from oppressive Fae folk! I'll have you know there's plenty of action and adventure in it…" Mary defended desperately.

"Yes. I read it. And I read a few reviews too. One happened to state that one of its most praised aspects is the well-developed _Romance_" he stated.

Poor Mary froze. She knew the guy felt a little iffy about that particular genre, and started dismissing it first, until he pointed out a few unsavory aspects in typical pieces and started thinking about it. Still, she felt her curiously was justly beyond the scope of personal fantasy.

"Please, I know how that came off, but answer me seriously!" she begged.

Mitchel sighed long and hard.

"Listen, as much as I'd love to answer, I'm just not sure how much you'll accept mine. We're friends, Mary, and we have these ideas of obligatory niceness like between family. It's like when my parents told me I'm smart: sure it's a compliment, but they're my parents. And when they aren't busy shoveling discipline and various other forms of crap my way, I know encouragement is part of a parent's job." He shared.

"But you really are a smart guy!" Mary argued, "You have a kind of insight that picks up on things a lot of people don't notice! It… makes you that much more interesting as a friend! Really!"

"That's… a bit much, isn't it?" Mitchel twitched.

The pair exchanged peculiar glances until the aura of discomfort around them died down.

"Anyway, I guess I can accept your perception as truth if you're willing to accept mine." Mitchel proposed.

Mary gave a single nod in response, and Mitchel nodded back.

The farmer then cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and looked Mary straight in the eye.

"How could I say otherwise? Of course you're pretty; very much so. In fact, I'd say you're deep into the "adorable" territory. If it wasn't fact that we're friends, this moment would actually be way more awkward than it is right now." He replied frankly, only to smile warmly a moment later.

"Really? But… how about compared to Karen? And Popuri? Even and Elli and Ann---"

"Don't…mention…Ann…" Mitchel growled while gritting his teeth.

"Ah,…sorry!" Mary yelped.

"Anyway, please don't make me do comparisons. Sure, Karen's the type of girl a typical guy back home would brag about to be with, but she's, well… Karen." Mitchel continued while rolling his eyes, "the girl's a crazy childhood friend of mine. She taught me how to fight, took every opportunity to cause trouble, and apparently became a drunk when she moved here. She's…not exactly the most pleasant person around, and definitely not my type. Popuri's a fellow chicken-loving comrade, but for the most part she's just cute in that Victorian dress-up sort of way. Elli has that appeal of naiveté and open charity while holding the warmth of a mother, so of course people would go for her. And Ann… attracts the crazies. Clearly, my blatant bias here isn't so reliable in discerning beauty."

Mary laughed nervously after getting Mitchel's basic rundown on the bachelorettes of Mineral Town.

"So it is…" she agreed hesitantly.

"But you got the just of it, right? Pretty much each girl has her own type of beauty, even you, Mary. I just happen to be one of those people that recognize it. Although this pretty much means that all beauty is superficial to some extent, regardless. And it's all because each form of beauty applies to certain tastes. To put it frankly, all of us pretty much have some quirky fetish we'll instantly go for." Mitchel lectured.

"I see…" Mary said in awe.

For a moment, Mary's writing hand stretched, as if ready to pull out a pen to take notes on the spot, but she decided it would be better just to commit the farmer's words to memory.

"For example: you, my friend, will appeal largely to those who have a thing for shy, awkward introverts who rarely assert themselves. The bookworm trait actually lends itself towards those qualities rather nicely, and you'd be surprised how much of a draw glasses are if exposed to the right crowd!"

"So… are you saying that you're naturally drawn to quiet girls?" Mary asked.

Mitchel's face turned slightly red when he recalled a middle school crush matching those qualities, and then found himself looking right at qualifying librarian Mary.

"I guess I am…" Mitchel answered slowly.

The acting professor cleared his throat before moving on to his lesson.

"So, yeah… I suppose it can be said that your insecurities are furthered by the presence of the diverse beauties in Mineral Town, as well as the incompatible tastes of the residents here. If they truly do not acknowledge you as beautiful, then they simply do not comprehend the type of beauty you present. Consequentially, if you were to be within a social sphere more drawn to your qualities, you'd actually be the "Miss Popular" of the bunch; of course, that may also work against if you if all that attention will just make you even more socially awkward. At the same time, it could have the other negative affect of turning you conceited, and then you might seek to obtain a form of "conventional" beauty in the process. But for the sake of this discussion, let's disregard the consequences. For now, I'd like to explore the social environments that you may thrive in. Let's see… what kind of people generally find the wallflowers to be attractive? Oh, maybe the Japanese! Especially if you became a tad more proper and got skilled in archery and martial arts, you could fashion yourself into a regular "_Yamato Nadeshiko_"!

Mitchel gave a wink and a thumbs up as soon as he said those foreign words.

"Y-you mean… a traditional Japanese beauty?" Mary asked.

"Sure! Sure! You got all the makings of one, actually! Just slip on a fancy kimono, fix up your hair, and you'll practically look the part!" he exclaimed. "Of course, with the exposure of Western Culture and the mass production of dating simulations, the traditional tastes might have been cut down considerably… not to mention that's a clear-cut cultural stereotype in the first place. Yeah, the "blondes and big boobs" campaign has really screwed up today's times, hasn't it?"

The raven-haired farmer pondered another possibility while Mary sat back with uneasy anticipation.

"How about guys… that are similar to me?" Mary proposed.

"What? No, no, no… Mary, I've met those kind of guys before. While girls like you might envy the "hotties", guys like that hold them high on a pedestal and generally drool over them like hormoneified monkeys! Despite their lack of ambition in that field, they're surprisingly big dreamers, and it doesn't help that a number of them with delusions of grandeur are convinced that they'll strike it rich and get the girls through wealth! I hate to be crude, but as upstanding as the typical "nerdy" guy makes himself out to be, they can be the absolute worst!" Mitchel stressed.

"W…wow… I didn't think it could be that way before. I thought that perhaps I could easily get along would a guy if we had so much in common." Mary confessed.

"Well, I didn't say you couldn't be friends with a guy like that. But yeah, I'm not saying they're all like that in the end. I just wanted to give you a heads up, because the reality of the world isn't pretty." Mitchel explained.

Again, he pondered the possibilities until an ideal thought hit him.

"Wait, let's go back a bit! Your book-reading hobbies! I know! Your ideal environment would be a populated library! There should be plenty of guys in one that share your hobby with equal earnest, and if that's not the case, I'm sure there are plenty still that will surely recognize your type of beauty! It's so genius! Why didn't I realize this sooner?" Mitchel cried.

"Those… actually exist?" Mary asked while rubbing her head in confusion.

"Yes, they exist! Back at the city we lived in, we had a library over eight times the size of this shack! And plenty of people were going in there all the time to do research for homework and stuff like that! Now that I think of it, I've actually seen a bookish-type cutie there before! Huh, I wonder if that woman's finally found someone? I would've thought she was at least five years older than me, so…"

While Mitchel went on with his rant, Mary became lost in thought of the possibilities brought to her.

_"A bigger library, eight times the size of this one? And many people visit it? I admit, it sounds as though most of them go there for an obligatory objective rather than sheer intellectual curiosity, but… it sounds like a very interesting place to visit. Maybe even fun. Maybe I could visit this enormous library one day…_" she thought.

"…Of course, a similar circumstance would be to start a local Mineral Town book club, but I believe you've already tried that before, and it failed miserably, didn't it? It makes sense… most of the guys here are too busy during the day anyway, and the girls here don't seem likely to gather for the sake of book talk." Mitchel blathered on.

"Oh, um… right. It was a shame I couldn't get any members, but I think we already have an established book club thanks to the Gossiping Houswives Gathering. I hear part of the time they discuss a popular romance novel or two in their meetings." Mary spoke up.

"Still, at least we found a sort of social environment where you just may thrive!" Mitchel smirked.

The quirky farmer then turned his head and stared solemnly into space until he nodded to himself in confirmation.

"There is, however, one more direction your appeal can go towards should you end up adjusting, and that is by becoming more like your mom, Anna. If you grew to share more of your mother's personality, especially her stern qualities, then you will become what some like to call the "Strict Librarian" type. In this case, the glasses heavily reinforce this image, and it's a fetish that has a miraculously wide reach of appeal. You end up throwing away some of your more endearing qualities along the way, but in a social world that's leaning towards edginess, guys are finding stern personalities to be quite hot striking! I suppose it has to do with the psychological appeal of taming a hostile personality: One is presented with a hard outer shell, only to be mentally egged on to find the sweet, tender center and feel it offers a more rewarding experience. Actually, I see something appalling in that train of thought, somehow…" Mitchel presented.

"I don't think… I'll grow to be like Mother." Mary confessed, "From what I heard, she was more assertive from the start. I'm quite different from her, really. All we have in common would be a penchant for tidiness, even if I don't seem that way sometimes."

"You never know, though. Sometimes the meek and humble grow to be a far greater force than anyone could possibly imagine." Mitchel offered.

"Really?" the librarian girl asked as mix of overwhelming emotions welled inside her

"Really." Mitchel nodded, "But you know…"

Suddenly, the spry farmer reached behind Mary with his right hand and bright her closer in an embrace with a cheerful grin.

"I'd prefer you preserve your sweet self as much as possible. You have a very relaxing presence, and I really appreciate it in this hectic town." Mitchel cheered.

Mary's face was absolutely flushed. Although she received many an endearing comment from both Mitchel and the local blacksmith's apprentice, this was perhaps the first time she had been embraced buy a guy that wasn't her father. But at this point, her curiosity was piqued on what sort of sensation that blacksmith's apprentice may provide with his own arms.

"…..Th-thank you, Mitchel…." Mary uttered meekly.

"You're welcome, Mary. Just wanted you to know that you're appreciated around here, and don't you ever forget it." Mitchel replied.

After a little while longer, the raven-haired farmer finally released his grateful friend from his hold and stepped back. A moment later, Mary was suddenly caught in an inexplicable giggle fit.

"You know, as odd as this sounds, after what I heard from you, I'm starting to think you might have been a tomboy in a past life or something." Mary admitted.

Mitchel was briefly taken back by the statement.

"Really? Huh… must be the occasional disgust I feel towards my own gender sometimes that came out of that discussion. But hey, I've actually thought the same thing once, but I believe I still liked girls "in that special way" if I lived it, if you know what I mean." Mitchel shared.

The pair exchanged amused grins before the topic at hand went on.

"Right… so, in conclusion, what you can take away from this little lesson is that beauty is pretty much superficial and its many types exist to satisfy whatever crazy, obscure desire we hold. And somewhere out in the world, there is a sizable category of people that will likely find your personal qualities absolutely irresistible, even if you believe yourself not to be so. Any overwhelming impression that you're not beauty is simply because you are incompatible with the society's concept of beauty, so it's not your fault. Finally, glasses can be a turn on." Mitchel finished.

Once the farmer took a bow, Mary applauded in wholehearted satisfaction.

"That was very nice, Mitchel! I wasn't expecting a scholarly lecture on all of this, but it was unexpectedly informative." Mary cheered.

"Uh, thanks. Just… don't ask me to do it again. I'm only capable of that sort of thing out of impulse… like just now… so consider yourself lucky." Mitchel warned.

"Well, I'm going to see if this book I grabbed is a worthwhile checkout"

"Alright, I'll leave you to your business then." Mary said with a nod.

Mitchel then started going through the book and observe its provided info while Mary once more took her current novel in her grasp. Just as she was about to continue her reading journey, one last thought struck her.

"…How is it we end up engaged in these peculiar subjects on a daily basis, anyway?" Mary said aloud curiously.

"… I don't know…" Mitchel answered with equal intrigue.

Still, the uncanny duo resumed their activities in the library unhindered.

* * *

_Author's Note: Great… Mitchel just gave Mary a lecture on fetishes. Um…_

_Anyway, I hope some of you have learned some sort of important lesson from all of this insanity, and a brighter outlook on life… if this story can actually provides such things._


End file.
